| World / USA / Illinois / Ottawa, 2 km from center | Coordinates: 41°20'27"N 88°49'13"W |
Bull's Island
A privately owned island in the middle of the Illinois River, Bull's Island is a favorite spot for boaters, scuba divers, and plucky youth to take a dip. In the center of the island is a man-made pit, once a sand mine, that rapidly filled with spring water when the mining equipment hit a spring some 90-ish feet down. The pit was abandoned, (in the 60's I think) leaving an equipment shack, a bulldozer, and a crane underwater. Today the water is a white sand beach surrounding a crystal clear pond all set in the middle of the muddy brown Illinois River! You can see the bottom 20-30 feet down. It's cold down there! Have you brought up a handful of sand from the bottom of the raft chain?
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6 months ago shepsters6 | 0 |
 
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I used to go to Starved Rock Marina with a friend's family on a regular basis, and we would go to visit this island. It was like paradise! When we went there (late 60's) we could dive off the ledges and swim out as far as we dared, peering down through the crystal clear water to try to see the equipment submerged below us. A year or two later they roped it off and only allowed you to swim in designated areas. As years passed and I would tell people stories about this place they seemed skeptical that it really exists. I had to look for myself just to be sure I hadn't imagined it all!! | ||||
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